Wheat – White Ink, Black Ink

The Tauton, MA based group Wheat, for the record, released what immediately became and is still one of my absolute favorite albums of all time: 2003’s Per Second Per Second Per Second…Every Second. Sure it helped that they had the backing of a major label and the help of a renown producer (Dave Fridmann) on their side, but the experience didn’t end well as the group was dropped soon afterward and their fans were left divided by the album’s results and implications. To this day they argue back and forth between whether the album represented the band’s peak or whether it was a glossy, overly slick misstep. Their follow up album, 2007’s Everyday I Said a Prayer for Kathy and Made a One Inch Square, despite good intentions and some nice moments, didn’t leave a big impression on much of their fanbase.

While this album, their 6th, manages to recapture a lot of the energy and the vibe of Per Second, it doesn’t quite get the handle on rediscovering it’s tunefulness. There’s no question right from the start that these songs have an undeniably earnest and often whimsical feel that is nothing less than endearing. Album opener “H.O.T.T” (which stands for “half of the time”), is a steady little lo-fi bouncer that, while occasionally a little bit too wordy for its own sake, sets the listener up for the ten songs that lay ahead of them. “Changes Is” finds the band in fine form, as the shimmering guitars and infectious structures carry it well and enable it to have the legs to find favor with fans of all the band’s fazes. While both primary members Scott Levesque and Brendan Harney switch back and forth between roles and instruments most fans would probably consider the Levesque the band’s true lead singer, and he turns in one of his finest performances in years with “Living 2 Die Vs. Dying to Live.” Melodically though, the song starts strong with its beatific backing vocals and lush yet lo-fi sound but begins to grow tiresome halfway through due to its repetitive structure as it repeats the same bit of phrasing for the balance of its length.

This is one of the chief bugaboos of this album, as many of these songs show promise at their outset, but wind up as too repetitive to warrant repeat listens. Some of the most notable examples of this foible are “If Everything Falls Together” and “Music is Drugs,” the latter of which features a nice chugging groove before being done in by the repeating chorus around its midpoint. The Harney sung “Mountains” means well, but ultimately just seems to ramble along without getting anywhere. The other flaw that is present over the course of this album is that some of these songs try to hard to sound interesting and exciting. As a result of this, there are moments on here that sound hackneyed and discombobulated as the different pieces trip over each other trying to get on the same page. “I Want Less” is the biggest culprit of this and maddening to listen to, as it seems like the percussion, guitars and synths, and vocals are performing three different songs all at the same time.

So the end result is a bit of a mixed bag. The first half of the album is clearly the better of the two claiming ownership of the album’s best songs and brightest moments. It can be a frustrating album to listen to from start to finish, as its high moments are really enjoyable while its lows can be grating. Still, its a step up from their last LP and while it can’t quite stand with the best the band has done, the best songs here are definitely worthy of repeated listens and mixtape inclusions for years to come.